June 4, 2009

Ride to Mantua

Sometimes I get carried away and last Sunday was one of those days. What started as a couple of hours on the road bike turned into a 4 hour death march.

Not that I am complaining, mind you.

Wifey and Smarty Pants had a neice's birthday party to attend, so I knew I had free time to have a good ride. As the day wore on, I felt good and figured I should make the most of it.

I left about 10:30 and headed west to escape traffic - strange since I was nearly run down by an asshole more focused on loosening his tie and being finished with church than piloting his damn vehicle. Fortunately I was able to take years off his life by screaming at him through his OPEN window. Seriously, this guy must have wondered how a guy with a bike helmet got into his truck and why he hadn't noticed me there before. He jumped so fast I thought he was going out the other door. Awesome. Maybe he'll pay a little closer attention when he drives now.

After that incident, which happened in the first five minutes of the ride, it was business as usual. The sun was out, it was warm, and somehow the wind managed to blow in my face nearly the entire time. Yet I still went on. To Mantua (Man-uh-way). 35 miles one way. Not usually a distance I am too concerned with. But it isn't like I am killing it on the bike anymore. I mean, I doubled the 2009 mileage on my Trek Madone on this fine day.

Coming back was a little more eventful. In addition to feeling like there were angry little bees trying to escape from my thighs, I ran out of both food and water, so I had to change my route a little because the way I was going had very little in the way of shopping. Fortunately I remembered to bring some cash with me. A whole $2. What the hell can you get for $2? A sale on commercial sports drinks and a granola bar. $1.68. At this point in the ride I would have given the 65 year old lady behind the counter a lap dance for a giant Snickers bar. But it was only about 10 miles. Obviously I made it. I even had a little tailwind the last few miles to bring me in.

The moral of this story is that I am not the rider I used to be, and it's a real bummer. But, on the flip side, I still went out and did a 70 mile ride with my nose in the wind and a fair amount of climbing thrown in for laughs. Oh, and my back didn't hurt. And that is huge considering back pain pretty much made me stop racing bikes. So I'll take what I can get, and rides like this where I can get them. I'll just be sure to bring more food from now on.